Indonesia Bags 8 Golds in SE Asian Karate Championship in Bangkok

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Karate Team won three gold, seven silver and seven bronze medals on the second day of the 2019 Southeast Asian Karate Championship in Bangkok, Thailand, on Saturday (4/13).

With the addition of the medals, Indonesia has collected a total of eight gold, nine silver and 17 bronze medals, after on the first day of the championship won five gold, two silver and 10 bronze medals, according to a press release of PB Forki (the Federation of Indonesian Karate Athletes).

The gold medal on the second day was won by Trie Rantika in the girl's Kumite number -55 kg of the U-21, Joshua Ignatius in the male's 75-kg class of U-21 , and Ari Saputra in the senior male's -55 kg. Trie won the championship after defeating Malaysian karate athlete Shahmalaroni Chandran, Joshua defeated  Vietnamese karate athlete Do Ba Phuang Nam, and Ari conquered Vo Van Manh of Vietnam.

"For the medal target, the eight gold medals that we obtained until the second day have met the target. But hopefully we can still add more gold medals because tomorrow (Sunday, 4/14) there are still two numbers to be contested, namely the men's and women's kumite teams, " said the national team manager Yusran Arief.

Read also: Asian Games: Bagged 11th Gold from Karate, Indonesia Remains Top 5

This achievement deserves to be appreciated, especially since the number of gold medals this year has increased from last year's seven gold medals.

Indonesia now temporarily ranks 4th in the medal tally after Vietnam with 20 gold, 19 silver and 25 bronze medals, followed by Thailand 13 gold, 8 silver and 27 bronze medals, and third place is controlled by Malaysia with nine gold, 12 silver and 16 bronze medals, or only winning 1 gold piece over Indonesia.

This result is not yet fully a description of the strength of the 2019 Philippines SEA Games, because the competition involves junior cadets and under-21s. But, at least it could be a lesson for Indonesia to continue to improve its quality, including being wary of the rise of Vietnam which dominated SEAKF 2019.

"Basically for the strategy to face the 2019 SEA Games we already know which countries to look out for. And in this SEAKF Vetnam, Malaysia, and Thailand are full teams with their national teams. They also sent two people in one class. While Indonesia is not in full team because our national team is divided into two, and the other team is sent to the Moroccan Primary League WKF, " Yusran said.

Secretary General of Forki Raja Sapta Ervian said that the results of SEAKF 2019 could be one of the reference maps for competition in the 2019 SEA Games in the Philippines. Therefore, PB Forki will continue to improve the quality of the team in order to face real competition in the Philippines, one of which is by increasing athletes' fighting hours both at home and abroad.

"In fact, on Monday (15/4) we will send another national team to the Premier League WKF Championship in Rabat, Morocco. Besides hunting for 2020 Olympic points, of course we want them to be better prepared if they are selected for the 2019 SEA Games team," said Ervian.

ANTARA